American insurance giant AIG is stepping up its efforts to call out discrimination and prejudice of any form in Japan with the help of the New Zealand national rugby teams, of which it is a sponsor.
The campaign, which is part of its ‘diversity is strength’ movement, saw AIG design a new jersey for the All Blacks, with the help of TBWA/Hakuhodo, which is black on the surface and reveals the colors of the rainbow when it is stretched.
The All Blacks, the New Zealand men’s national rugby team and the Black Ferns, the New Zealand women’s national rugby team, also appeared in a film for the campaign, which is an extension of an online movie in 2017 called ‘#TackleTheRisk’.
“Building on the success of our #TackleTheRisk film last year, we really wanted to work with TBWA/Hakuhodo and the All Blacks again to tackle the bigger social issues in Japan – starting with diversity,” said Matthew Walker, regional chief marketing officer at AIG Japan.
“Our creative challenge to TBWA/Hakuhodo was how do we combine AIG, the All Blacks/Black Ferns and diversity in a relevant and impactful way that reflected our common values and aspirations? From TBWA/Hakuhodo’s initial organizing idea of ‘If you combine all colors of the rainbow, you get black’ through to their fabric innovation and film integration to achieve that promise, we knew it was a big idea.”
